Close Enough To Help
by writerchick13
Summary: Nobody would come close enough to help. oneshot, dracoXhermione. 6th yr. hermione realizes something about draco...that he's just like everybody else...a human being. R&R! thanks!


**A oneshot, rather revised if you will. Have fun, and don't forget to review! **

**Disclaimer: Uh huh. It's totally mine. Not.**

Close Enough To Help

_Why don't you just smile, why don't you just lie, why don't you just bottle up your feelings and keep them all inside._

"Shove off Malfoy." Harry Potter had just come up behind his best friend Hermione Granger. The two had been having a shouting match in the middle of the third floor corridor…again.

"Keep out of it Potter. What's wrong Granger? Need the chosen one to fight all your battles for you?" Malfoy taunted Hermione, who was looking livid.

"That's rich, coming from you," she retorted, spitting the words out angrily. "Why don't you try going somewhere without your two bodyguards for once in your life? Could it be because you know you're a pathetic, worthless creation, and you know you disgrace the name of 'wizard'?"

"Watch your language Granger," Draco warned in a suddenly low tone of voice. "I understand you're just jealous, but I can't help it that I'm a pureblood and you're a mudblood."

Harry, who had been standing behind Hermione silently, plunged his hand inside his robes for his wand, Malfoy doing the same.

"No Harry!" Hermione cried, turning around and stepping in front of Harry. Harry sidestepped her, and she copied him.

"Get out of it Hermione, I'm sick of him calling you that all the time!" Harry snarled, still trying to get a good aim over Hermione.

"No! He's not worth it. Let's go, we're going to be late for Charms." she told him, breathing hard.

"Run along Potter. You don't want to be late for class," Draco told him, smirking.

With a sigh, Harry pocketed his wand and watched as Draco slowly turned around and walked off, the opposite way.

"Why didn't you let me hex him Hermione?" he asked, picking his bag up from off the floor and shouldering it.

"Because, it's not worth it. He's not worth it. I don't want you getting in trouble just because he's a stupid git."

"Still…one good curse, and he wouldn't be able to tell on me for weeks." Harry told her savagely.

"Come on," Hermione said sighing, as she walked in the door to Charms. "Flitwick's already

taking roll."

The scene in the corridor was all but forgotten as the class went on, and soon, Hermione could tell that Harry wasn't going to bring it up. Thank God.

Hermione's blood was still boiling an hour later, when class let out and the Gryffindors walked up to their tower, classes being over for the day. Hermione gave Harry and Ron an excuse, walked up to the girls dormitories, and shut the door behind her. At once, her demeanor changed.

She flung down her bag, causing books to spill out. She yanked the hangings around her bed open, doing it so violently, that they half ripped. Throwing herself on the bed, she gave an angry sigh.

_Damn ferret, pureblood wizard…probably wants to grow up and be a death eater just like his daddy. Daddy's little boy, aspiring to kill all the decent people in this world. _Without realizing it, she started to cry, more out of frustration than anything. _If only they knew, they wouldn't think my self control was that good. I was right along with Harry____ give him a swift kick in the rear, that's all he needs. I would do it, and have fun while I was at it. Freaking ferret._

Her thoughts continued in this pattern, and pretty soon, darkness closed in, causing her to sit up and sigh again. Giving her face a quick wash, she went downstairs to sit with Ron and Harry.

"Hey 'Mione," Ron called out, turning in his chair when Hermione came down.

"Hey Ron, Harry. What are you guys up to?" she asked, seeing them at a table with bits of parchment and books open…they couldn't be doing homework could they?

"Decided to try to get Snape's essay out of the way…could you check mine over for me Hermione?" Harry asked hopefully.

"Sure," Hermione replied, and pulling it towards her, began her corrections.

_She cant, she can't just sit their politely and let her feelings die. So she screams "Shut the hell up!" and everybody stares. She goes one step further and screams for him to "rot in hell."_

Hermione Granger was very mad indeed. It was potions, and Snape had just left the classroom to run an errand. Draco Malfoy was taking the absence of a teacher to badger Hermione relentlessly. Finally, she cracked. Her motto of 'ignore it' went out the window as she stood up.

"I hate you!" Hermione screamed, losing all control. "You're worthless, and pathetic! You think that you're so good and mighty, just because you're a pureblood. I'm smarter than you, how does that make you feel?"

Draco stood there in shock, and then almost at once, hitched a smirk on back on his face.

"Losing our self control aren't we Granger? You are not smarter than me. Just because your nose is in books all the time does not mean you are smarter than me. I understand Granger," he told her softly, with a fake air of trying to be comforting. "I completely understand. You're jealous."

"Shut the hell up!" she spat at him angrily. The class, which had been sitting silently in shock, took a collective gasp. Harry and Ron got halfway out of their seats, and then thought better of it.

"Watch the way you speak to me Granger." Draco told her dangerously. "I've let you get away with foul language once, you can't always be so lucky."

Hermione opened her mouth to retaliate, but then seemed to think better of it. Very slowly, she walked across the dungeon room, until she was so close to Draco he could smell her shampoo. In a whisper that rang across the room she said three words"Rot in hell."

"Ms. Granger, that will be 30 points from Gryffindor." A cold voice broke the deathly silence.

Hermione slowly turned around, and saw Professor Snape standing in the doorway. She squared her jaw, and made her way back to her desk. Just then, the bell rang. Without a word to anyone, she packed up her stuff, flung her bag over her shoulder, and walked out.

_She gets up, runs out of the room and sits down in the hallway, breathing hard and out of control._

She hadn't stopped to wait for Harry and Ron. They would probably make everything worse anyways.

Her bag was slamming against her shoulder and back with every other step, shaking with barely contained anger. She couldn't believe what had just happened. The thing she told herself she would never let happen had happened. She had lost control.

Hermione stopped only when there were no more people around. This corridor was deserted, and that was what she wanted. She slid down against the cool stone wall, breathing hard. Her bag made sitting uncomfortable, so she sat up slightly, removed her bag, and sat down again.

_It seems a little dramatic, now she comes to think of it. He just makes her so freaking pissed._

Maybe she had gone too far. She had lost Gryffindorhouse points, something she never did. But whenever Hermione thought of him, her anger and rage was hard put to stay down. Why did he hate her? He didn't even bug Harry and Ron that much, but he would not leave her alone.

_You're a mudblood Hermione, that's why. That's why he won't leave you alone. _

"No!" she shouted aloud. "I am not a mudblood, that's not true. I'm smarter than him, both in real life lessons and school. He's just a stupid little jumped up ferret."

The anger wasn't abating, no matter what she told herself. Her rage at Malfoy was never ending, even if it was worse at times.

_She can't concentrate and she's falling behind in class, that never happened to her, not to Hermione Granger._

Hermione couldn't concentrate. She was trying to do Charms homework, and she kept reading the same passage over and over again. Her grades in potions were falling, Malfoy probably really was the top of the class now. Snape had never liked her in the first place, and delighted in giving her poor marks when he could. Now he actually had a reason, Hermione could blame only herself for her grades.

What was wrong with her? She never fell behind in class. She was the one that got Harry and Ron through their finals, now she needed help also. But all she could think about was Draco. Malfoy. _He doesn't deserve a first name. _She reminded herself.

_Over and over again, he never relents, until one day she has had enough. She told him to shut up and stick it up his you-know-what._

He wouldn't shut up. Weeks and weeks and weeks of torment. It was getting ridiculous.

"Hey Granger, you want a piece?" she looked behind her, Malfoy was standing over her shoulder. He was holding a package of homemade brownies, his mother had probably sent them.

"Why?" she asked suspiciously.

"Just wanted to offer," he replied, holding out the package. She slowly took one, and started to eat. Harry and Ron, who were finishing breakfast, stared on in disbelief. "Here, take the whole platter." he said graciously.

"Why?" Harry asked suddenly. He was being nice.

"Well, Grangers hand touched the side of the plate. It's contaminated you see." he replied easily, and Hermione stopped eating.

Slowly, she stood up, until she was inches from Malfoy. She took the plate that was sitting on the table into her hands and looked at it. She picked a brownie off the plate and stared at it for a couple of seconds. The she smashed it on his blond head.

"What the hell do you think you're doing Granger!" he snarled at her, rage reaching every part of his face.

"Getting even. Stay the hell away from me, and you can just stick all your pureblood righteousness up--" she was interrupted.

"Hermione," Ron warned, and she turned around. She could see Professor McGonagall striding towards the Gryffindor table. Before anyone could stop her, she turned back to Malfoy and crashed the whole plate upside down on top of his head. The platter broke, and pieces of glass littered the floor and Malfoy's hair.

The professor's yells coupled with Malfoy's filled the air and the whole hall stopped what they were doing to listen. Hermione strode calmly toward the teacher, and without a trace of fear in her voice told her professor: "You saw what I just did. I know that you aren't allowed to take sides between houses so I know I have to get in trouble. But you have to understand something. He won't stop. No matter what. He deserved what he just got."

The great hall broke out in whispers. McGonagall stared at Hermione for a couple of seconds. Hermione could have almost sworn that she saw McGonagall's mouth curve up into the tiniest smile, but then it was gone.

"My office Ms. Granger. Malfoy, come along."

"What? Professor, I haven't done anything!" Malfoy snarled, outraged.

"If what Ms. Granger says is true, you have done something," McGonagall said coldly. "I would thank you to not use that tone of voice with me as well. Come along. Now."

Malfoy stared defiantly at the professor for a couple of seconds, and then slowly, his insides boiling with rage, started towards the doors. Hermione had already left.

Professor McGonagall, after throwing the whole hall a look that quieted them somewhat immediately, followed the two teenagers.

The next half hour was torture. Everything Hermione said Malfoy denied, although Hermione had enough decency to admit to the stuff that she had said and done. In the end, it came to the agreement that neither would talk to the other, for fear of worse punishment. As it was, points were being taken off each house.

"Yes Ms. Granger, 50. It's immature behavior." Hermione shut her mouth. She could not argue.

"Yes professor." she said meekly, and then, without once glancing at Malfoy continued. "If we are done here, I would like to go up to the common room."

"Very well. Goodnight."

"Goodnight professor." Hermione turned on her heel, and left.

_He says he'll never stop, not until she's his. As the realization dawns, her mouth drops open. So that's all she is, a prize to him, a prize to catch._

"Hey Granger!" Malfoy's voice called out behind her. She sighed. That lasted long.

She turned around. "What do you want Malfoy?" she spat.

"I'll never quit." he told her quietly, in a voice that made her blood run cold. "Not until you're mine."

"What…." she started, and the realization hit her. Was he…..did he fancy her? Her mouth dropped open. Indignation welled up in her chest and fury started up again. So that's what this was all about. A prize, probably a bet with his mates, she was an object to get.

_Well that's fine she thinks. Let him be stuck in his ways._

"Go to hell Malfoy." she told him coolly, and turned on her heel and left him standing in the middle of the third floor corridor.

XxXxXxXx

Months later, and Hermione's life was mercifully absent of a certain ferret. She was walking out of the potions classroom when it started again. The old row. Malfoy and Granger. Time for the rest of the class to watch.

"Hey Granger!" Malfoy called out.

"You know, you might get a better response out of me if you called me by my first name." she turned and spat at him, in cold fury. She was not having a good day.

"Fine. Hermione." the word sounded so weird coming out of his mouth, that Hermione was momentarily stunned.

"What?"

"I would like to ask you here, in front of everyone else, a question." he said dramatically, and a few of his fellow Slytherins sniggered.

"What?" she repeated, with Harry and Ron behind her, looking at Malfoy warily.

"Would you go out with me?" he asked, and the Slytherins burst into laughter. Malfoy on the other hand had a straight face.

"No guys." she said quietly, Ron and Harry had their wands out and aimed at Malfoy.

"You want an honest answer?" she asked quietly, the Slytherins fell silent, so that they could hear better.

"Yes, honest would be the best way to go in this I think." Malfoy replied, with a yearning in his eyes.

"I hate you. I think you are the scum of the earth. I don't blame the giant squid if you asked it out and it rejected you. You are worse than all the filthy, slimy, nasty stuff in liquid filled jars that are in Snape's classroom. You think I'm filthy just because I'm muggle-born? Take a look in the mirror." she told him. "No. I would not go out with you." the words cut through the air like a knife. Hermione looked coldly into Malfoy's eyes, and what she saw there shocked her. She saw hurt. Sadness. Before his stormy gray eyes could fill with tears, she had turned around, and headed to the Gryffindor common room. Harry and Ron followed, silently.

That night in bed, she couldn't get to sleep. It was haunting her. Those eyes. Filled with something Hermione had never thought would be possible for a Malfoy to feel. Hurt. Rejection. Pain. Almost without realizing it, she started to cry.

_But as she walks away, she realizes one more thing: the prize has been won, and she loves a ferret._

She hadn't realized it then. But she realized it now. The prize had won. There was something there that in those few moments she had looked into Draco's eyes; she had seen something that nobody else knew about. It wasn't his fault. She felt a sudden yearning to help him, tell him that it was going to be okay, shelter him from his life, his father, show him what true friends were like.

It wasn't his fault. It's how he was raised. Pity. Sadness. That's what she was feeling. And love. An overpowering love. Something so strong, it was indescribable.

_So silly of me. You can't just love somebody. It takes time. _She told herself. But it was true. She loved him, all because of a couple moments in the dark dungeons. She realized now what Malfoy had been asking her that afternoon.

For someone to love him. For someone to care about him. Sobs erupted in her throat and came out strangled in her pillow. The overwhelming feeling that she had been his last hope was all over, and it was painful, horrible, to think that she had rejected him. Somebody who needed her the most.

Eventually, the sobs subsided, and she was left with a headache and a drenched pillow. She drifted off, to dreams filled with a shadow of a person, reaching out for her hand, but she wouldn't come close enough.

Nobody would come close enough to help.

**Kinda melodramatic I know, but I'm in the mood. Lol. Hope you liked, and reviews are certainly welcome, as well as constructive criticism. Love from-writerchick13**


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